An entire South American community will be 3D printed in just 24 hours
Houses used to be expensive and time consuming to build, those days are fast disappearing.
Cite or link to this article
Griffin, M. (2019) 'An entire South American community will be 3D printed in just 24 hours', 311 Institute, 25 May. Available at: https://www.311institute.com/an-entire-community-will-be-3d-printed-in-just-24-hours/ (Accessed: 1 October 2026).
Following on swiftly from the developments in France, where a family became the first in the world to move into their own 3D printed home, and in Dubai who want 25 percent of all new buildings to be 3D printed by 2030, now somewhere in Latin America, a small community of 50 lucky farmers and weavers will be getting their very own 3D printed homes. And what’s make this particular project stand out even more is the fact that the entire community will be 3D printed in just 24 hours. The project is being run by the San Francisco based design firm Fuseproject who are working in conjunction with the housing non-profit and who describe themselves as “a construction technologies company.”
The location is undisclosed at the moment and will only be revealed when construction is finished.
“You can shape the walls to have different functionality, you can create a shower stall that doesn’t have sharp corners,” Fuseproject founder Yves Béhar told the New York Times. Talking up the customisation available within the project, Béhar tells the Times that homeowners can specify a two or three bedroom plan home, and the exterior concrete can be tinted different colours “so it doesn’t become that cookie cutter look” that we see in so many other housing developments all around the world.
On its website, Fuseproject says it worked with people in the undisclosed community to learn more about their culture and make sure the housing options made sense for their environment.
"We used 3D [design] technology and the unique design possibilities it enables to provide solutions that addressed important questions related to climate, family structure, and the role that the homes play in creating a larger community," the firm says.
Fuseproject also notes in its description that for "families living on less than $200 per month, access to safe housing that provides shelter from both environmental and physical danger is critical."
"We feel it’s our responsibility to challenge traditional methods," says New Story CEO Brett Hagler in a press release. "Linear methods will never reach the billion-plus people who need safe homes. Challenging our assumptions, iterating based on data, and taking calculated risks on innovative ideas will allow us to reach more families with the best possible solutions, exponentially faster."
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Houses used to be expensive and time consuming to build, those days are fast disappearing.
About the author
Matthew Griffin Founder, 311 Institute
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."
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Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 17-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.
An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity program, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.
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Sources and further reading
- Fuseproject fuseproject.com
- and newstorycharity.org
- who describe themselves as “a construction technologies company.” iconbuild.com
- New York Times nytimes.com
- 3d printed village yves behar icon new story c56ded54 dwell.com
Source: first published by the 311 Institute on 25 May 2019. Cite as: Griffin, M. (2019). An entire South American community will be 3D printed in just 24 hours. 311 Institute. https://www.311institute.com/an-entire-community-will-be-3d-printed-in-just-24-hours/
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